After a busy and successful year, we can at last begin uploading recordings of recent Persian Circle talks! First is a presentation by Prof. Alireza Doostdar, of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, about “The Iranian Society of Spiritism/Psychology/Experimental Soul-Science.” You can listen to it here.

NB: Prof. Doostdar had a PowerPoint presentation to go with his talk, so the plain audio may be missing certain details. Also, due to a technical problem, there is a short gap in the recording during the Q&A.

Please stay tuned for more recordings, which we will continue to post until the backlog is cleared. (Apologies again for the delay.)

Please remember to keep checking our “News and Announcements” page for a list of upcoming events! Also, we have a number of talks which have been recorded in the past few months, and we will soon resume posting them to this site. Apologies for the hiatus.

P.S. If you are not on our email list and would like to be, please get in touch – contact details are on the “About” page. Also feel free to join us on Facebook.

On Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, Cameron Cross presented some of his literary research on Vis o Rāmin, a Persian narrative poem written in the mid-11th century CE by Gorgāni. The discussion centered on the poem’s portrayal of characters’ falling in love. Cameron’s remarks, and the Q&A that followed, were recorded. You can listen to it here.

Dr. Keyvan gave a fascinating talk on Wednesday, Oct. 24 about the relationship between the works and world-view of Mowlānā Rumi, and the scientific field of quantum mechanics. His talk, and some of the discussion that followed, was recorded. You can listen to it here.

For those who attended Barbara Scharres’ excellent talk earlier today – and for those who missed out! – we encourage you to go to the Gene Siskel Film Center over the next couple weeks, and to watch some of the great Iranian films that they’re showing. You can find details about the Center’s Festival of Films from Iran at the link below.

Ms. Torabi gave a thought-provoking talk earlier today about the film Nader and Simin: A Separation. Although today’s discussion was not recorded, you can read the text of Ms. Torabi’s review of the film, which was originally published in the journal Baran, at the link below.

The “About” and “News and Announcements” pages have been updated for the beginning of the 2012-13 academic year. We have a number of upcoming lectures and presentations, all of which promise to be interesting and provoke lively discussion, and we hope that you will be able to join us on Wednesday evenings throughout the year.

We plan to record as many of this year’s lectures as possible and to post links to the recordings on this blog, as has been done in the past. So you can check this site frequently for news and schedule updates, as well as to listen to lectures that you were unable to attend in person.